Word: mattel
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...China was a logical place to launch a dedicated Barbie concept store for other reasons. Mattel imports 65% of its products from Chinese factories - a fact that became embarrassingly obvious in 2007, when the company had to recall nearly 20 million Chinese-made toys. Mattel later admitted that most of the defects, which included toxic lead paint and magnets that became lethal if ingested, were a result of design flaws, not manufacturing mistakes, but China's reputation had already taken a beating. The Shanghai store helps to repair the company's image in China...
...might seem risky to open a new, untested store at a time when U.S. toy retailers are suffering (KB Toys, the second largest U.S. toy chain behind Toys "R" Us, filed for bankruptcy in December). But Mattel is opportunistically positioning itself to thrive, not merely survive, in a tough environment. Today, two-thirds of Barbie sales come from 150 foreign markets; international sales increased 12% in 2007, even as U.S. sales sagged by 15%. "What we're doing in Shanghai is an indication for the future of the Barbie brand," Dickson says. Mattel is already planning similar stores in Brazil...
...change Mattel is not making is in the doll itself. The company has produced ethnic dolls in the past, including a few it might like to forget, like the 1981 Oriental Barbie or the 1967 Colored Francie. But other than the fact that there is a brunette version, very little about the new Shanghai Barbie doll is different. Same long legs, same wasp waist. Barbie may be entering her golden years, but Mattel is betting there's life...
...image issue right from the beginning. "No mother is going to buy her daughter a doll with breasts," Ruth Handler's husband and business partner Elliot insisted. Her other male colleagues at Mattel, the company she founded, concurred. But Handler, a 5-ft. 2-in. (1.6 m) dynamo, was convinced there was a market for a mass-produced adult doll. Little girls aspired to be bigger girls, she reasoned. For years she pressed on, finally introducing the doll at the 1959 Toy Fair in New York City...
...becoming a star even in China--not to mention the lead character of a compelling business saga. It's one of unrelenting ambition that ends sadly but not unsuccessfully. Sales of Barbie, plus her carefully tailored outfits and paraphernalia, garnered more than $1 billion last year, helping keep Mattel the world's No. 1 toymaker. The curvaceous doll, who would measure 39-21-33 if she were an adult woman, is both an icon and a kitsch object that has provoked feminist ire. In recent years, Barbie's sales have vacillated because of competing dolls and other childhood diversions like...